Import settings in Intellij IDEA, PhpStorm or WebStorm

Question

1. What is the difference between:

   • Import my settings from a previous version (<path>) (when install)
   • Import settings from a JAR archive (File | Import settings)

2. For Import my settings from a previous version (<path>) -- what are the necessary files?

   • only directory config ?
   • what about directory system ?

Answer 1

Import my settings from a previous version (<path>) (when install)

This option is available (and offered automatically) when new IDE version is launched (mainly major versions only) and no settings found for this version. It's not possible to bring this dialog manually, unless you delete your settings for current version.

If you choose to use it IDE will just copy all files from config folder (Windows/Linux -- on Mac it uses different folder structure) from older version into new one.

Import settings from a JAR archive (File | Import settings)

You can do this at any time (as long as you have exported your setting before using similar action).

This option can be used:

• for backup purposes (manual, but easy to use for ordinary user);
• to transfer settings between different IDE versions and different computers/OS;
• to import 3rd party settings (e.g. custom color schemas) without searching where to put them in actual file system (as paths differ between OS and IDE/OS versions).

The possible downside (danger) of using this functionality is that devs may simply forget (bug/regression) to include certain config files when exporting settings (File | Export settings) -- I remember at least 2 complaints in the last 2-3 years.

I personally always use first option.

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For "Import my settings from a previous version (<path>)" -- what are the necessary files?

It depends on your OS.

On Linux/Windows config folder is enough; everything inside system can be re-generated (indexes/caches/etc) and gets emptied from time to time anyway (File | Clear caches...) and definitely not needed when upgrading your IDE to a newer version.

Mac uses different storage locations where config/plugins/etc are located in few different but standard locations.

More on this: Directories used by the IDE to store settings, caches, plugins and logs